Deliciously Ella’s Chocolate Ganache Cake

A 6-ingredient chocolate cake dreamed up by vegan blogger and author Ella Woodward

Photo by Clare Winfield

Ella says…

My favourite chocolate cake, it’s just so soft and gooey. It may also be the simplest cake ever: just six ingredients whizzed together and then baked for thirty minutes, so it’s great if you need a fancy dessert but have limited time or energy! It’s perfect for a party, too, as I’ve yet to find anyone who didn’t love it. This cake is perfect just as it is, frosted or not, but you could add a scoop of coconut ice cream to each slice if you want.

Ella’s Chocolate Ganache Cake

Makes 1 cake

Ingredients:

For the cake

Coconut oil, for the tin

3 avocados

7 tablespoons almond butter

8 tablespoons raw cacao powder, plus more to dust (optional)

11 tablespoons maple syrup

140g ground almonds

3 tablespoons chia seeds

For the frosting

4 tablespoons coconut oil

4 tablespoons raw cacao powder

4 tablespoons maple syrup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C). Oil a 20cm cake tin with coconut oil; I don’t line it with baking parchment as my ‘tin’ is made from silicone. If yours isn’t, you might want to.

2. Scoop the avocado flesh out of the skins; discard the stones.

3. Add the avocados to a food processor with all the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the top.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool and bind together for at least 20 minutes before turning out of the tin.

5. Sift over a little more cacao powder, if you like, to serve, as we did for the photo, or make the frosting. For the frosting, warm the coconut oil in a small saucepan just until it melts. Stir in all the other ingredients until you have a smooth, glossy glaze. Use it to frost the top of the cold cake, then leave to set.